Welcome back to part 2 of Justin Chancellor's Bass Rig. Today we’re looking Justin’s amplifiers
and getting bamboozled by some effects chains.
I'm going to let you in on a secret
Justin, likes to Boogie.
Justin … really likes to boogie.
Right back from Justin's first joined TOOL even to present day.
Justin has used Mesa Boogie cabinets. And done some major boogie experimentation
along the way.
Starting with his arrival in TOOL in 1996
he was seen on stage with two road ready 410s. Right next to this was a PH1000 -
with a 15 inch sub and 10 inch speakers surrounding it.
During the rest of the Aeima tour it wasn’t uncommon to see justin spice up this configuration.
Typically he would juggle between four or six 410s on stage
and on occasion place the PH1000 in front of those.
Strangely, at a London show In 1997 he used two PH1000s
ditching the 410s altogether.
Then in 1999 he appeared with his regular 410s and two new 215s.
During this period, these cabinets were powered by two Mesa Boogie
400 plus heads and two Boogie M2000’s.
Which are known for a real low clean sound.
These heads were also used in the recording of Lateralus
which came out in May 2001.
Bass Guitar Magazine released an article that June
dating the use of this equipment.
After the release of Lateralus and onto the tour.
That following September. The Australian Guitar magazine interviewed
Justin, who then mentioned he was using Mesa Boogies
newestet amplifier. the M-pulse
and ditched 400 plus.
He also mentions the use of a Demeter pre-amp,
using the DI for a brilliant clear signal.
The Lateralus tour now sees Justin using two 8x10s, the Mpulse, the M2000 and the demeter
DI. This three way configuration is absolutely vital to justin's sound so we’ll come back
to this shortly.
10k days was released in May 2006. Recording engineer Joe Barresi said in an
interview with Mix online magazine that
Justin’s bass tracks are a combination of cabinet miking and DIs.
Chancellor played through Gallien-Krueger heads and Mesa Boogie cabinets.
One amp was set to a clean tone and the other had a dirty sound.
Additionally, Chancellor's bass went through a Demeter DI box directly to the console.
The new arrival of Gallien Kruger heads will stay with justin even to present day.
Although you can bet your life, that once the new album comes out
that's all gonna change ... right?
Tell me Justin I'm right here I'm all ears...
The only real change since 2006 is the configuration of the amplifier cabinets.
The 10k days tour in 2006 sees Justin back with two road ready 410s
and one 412 These two 410s were replaced in 2009 with
a Mesa road ready 810 for the second time. .
Come 2010 and DunlopTV a release a video interviewing Justin's bass tech Chris Schyler.
Speaking of DunlopTV, I miss that show what ever happened to that series?!
Bryan Kehoe if you’re out there hit me up for a colab!
Anyway …
In this interview Chris Schyler walks through Justin's gear and his rack equipment..
He has a tone works tuner A radical 7 splitter which will become evident
as to why. Demeter 201 preamp and a newer 201s
Then beneath those are three GK 2001RBs one of which is a backup.
For the cabs he uses a Mesa Boogie 4x12 for the dirty signal
and an 8x10 for the clean.
Let bridge the gap between amplifiers and effects pedals.
Justin's rig is built to have three outputs. A dry channel from the 8x10 ,
a distorted channel from the 4x12 and a clean channel from the demeter preamp
which has an onboard DI.
The mixing engineer then has far more control over the bass
and gives Justin a better sound out front.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at Justin's effects pedals and signal chain.
On some of the most recent interviews with Justin.
His pedal board has at least 15 different effects on it
and they’ve all been replaced over the years.
So in the interest of your time I’m going to walk you through his most recent signal
chain as simply as possible. All the names, models and a list of previous
pedals can be found in the show notes linked up above.
For the dry signal we follow the input chain right to left.
From his bass his signal goes into his Tuner which is also
thru put into the rack mounted toneworks.
Into a tremlo and a whammy. Then some distortion. Followed by four types of modulation, chorus,
flanger, delay and Envelope not Octave.
Then to finish that off there there is a fuzz, an overdrive and a fuzz slash wah.
This goes into a radical splitter in his rack and into his 2001RB.
ending in the 8x10 clean cab which is then micced up.
The dirty signal takes a feed from the splitter and goes into a turbo rat and an EQ.
Justin has said he uses “the tiniest bit of distortion with a bit of cut”.
Again, from the EQ this goes into an overdrive and
back to the second 2001RB and the 4x12 cab
again micced up.
Lastly, a third feed from the splitter is sent to the Demeter preamp
and a clean signal sent from the DI to front of house.
Justin has two Demeter models, the 201 and the 201S
and it’s unclear whether uses both at the same time or one for backup.
The DunlopTV video also mentions a few additional pedals
which Chris Schyler describes as a play pedal board
and is pretty much a few different modulation effects.
these pedals were not included in the most recent equipment list in 2016
but they’re still worth a look at. Check the show notes for more info.
With the new album looming somewhere in the distance. We learn more every week.
And we now know Justin is in possession of a KHDK Abyss bass overdrive.
His version has a rather awesome custom chassis But for the rest of us the normal version
will have to do.
Will this replace the turbo rat or the 412 line? We just have to wait and see.
Lets round the video off with strings.
Justin has used Ernie ball strings since he joined Tool
and their String Theory video now confirms him using Hybrid Slinkys up to 105.
In an interview in 2001 Justin also said he swapped out the 105 string for a 110.
Bass Player Magazine contradicts this video, mentioning him using Super Slinkys 110s (.045–.110).
But perhaps he takes the .110 from this pack instead.
This would give him a thicker E string with a bit more crunch for down tuning.
On the next Know your Bass Player we look at the Les Claypool of Primus.
Take a look at the show notes for all the details of Justin’s pedals over the years
and all the details I haven’t included today. If there's someone you want to see on the
channel in the future let me know down below in the comments.
Thank you for watching and i’ll see you next time.